Ever After
by Midnight Tsuki
Summary: Kazuma and Fumino have finally created a happy family of their own. But what happens when their teenage daughter suddenly starts having thoughts about love?


_Faster than a Kiss: Ever After..._

Disclaimer: I do not own Faster than a Kiss.

* * *

She walked in silence, enjoying the beauty of nature. The soft breeze played upon her light brown hair, making her feel as though she were floating in the winds. Her gunmetal grey eyes were continuously drawn to the sparkling sky blue river that seemed to reflect the world in its mysterious ways. A peaceful serenity filled the entire neighborhood and she couldn't help but feel something missing.

Sighing with her head hanging low, she walked home with a dejected feeling. _This is so boring, its no fun today! _Ojiro Akari thought as she walked down the empty street. All her friends had some date or job to get to and she couldn't help but feel alone. _Dates, huh? _She pondered that thought as it spun around in her head over and over again. Shaking her head, nope she couldn't do it. If she had a boyfriend...well what would dad say? She remembered the first day she had seen 'Hells Maa-kun' and felt her entire body shudder with fear. Yep, bad idea. Definitely a bad, way bad idea.

She looked down the sloping hillside and immediately noticed a figure laying by the river side. Panic filled her mind as she raced down and ran towards the young...boy, it seemed. As she neared, she saw the young boy, he seemed around her own age. His jet black hair was wet and his eyes were closed. It was a bad sign! She knelt by his side and rolled him flat on his back. _What do I do?_ She panicked but decided to check his breathing, after all if he was breathing it had to be a good sign. She saw his chest rise up and down and thought good, at least he wasn't dead. Having no idea f what her next mode of action should be, she decided to shake him, hoping he'd magically wake up. _Oh please...Oh please!_

"Hello! Are you alive?" She shook the boy as hard as she could and it was apparently enough because the boy began to get up and cough. HE opened his eyes to reveal identical jade green orbs. Somewhere inside Akari a butterfly fluttered and her heart skipped a beat. _  
_

The boy got up and looked at her in confusion, "Are you okay?" he asked almost trying to suppress a smile. His voice was soft and melodic... it seemed like a liquid melody flowed through Akari.

She collapsed and sighed, falling into his arms. "I thought you were dead." She whispered just loud enough for him to hear.

He laughed, his laughter moving her as she leaned into his chest. "Well, thank goddess I'm not." He said getting up and bringing her back onto her own feet. "Although I do see why you'd get that impression." He laughed as he swept a hand through his short, layered hair.

"You give the impression of a drowned person," Akari said as she watched him brush off the grass on his coat and pants.

"So it seems." He said aloud as he picked up her bag along with his own.

"Not so it seems, you moron! Do you know how worried I was?" She yelled, grabbing her bag and hitting him over the head. She glanced at her watch ans yelped at the time. "I've got to go, and make sure not to die!" She yelled running away towards the sidewalk again. She looked back to see the boy on his knees, rubbing his head from her hit. He had the oddest look on his face.

_Hmmm, weird person._ She thought as she ran towards her home.

* * *

"I'm home!" Akari called out removing her shoes and walking towards the living room.

"Welcome back, Akari-chan" Fumino greeted her eldest child with a hug and kiss. "So how was school today?"

"A-cha! A-cha! Yow-re home!" Ojiro Jun, the youngest of the Ojiro family, called out. He catapulted himself into the open arms of his eldest sister. "I miss you so much!" Jun said as his familiar brown eyes peered at her from behind his messy hair. He held her face in his hands and returned to hugging her tightly.

"He was asking about you all day." Fumino said with a laugh as she folding the thrown on the sofa. "Where is A-chan? When will A-chan be home?" Fumino recalled as she laughed and ruffled her son's mess of silver hair.

Jun outstretched his arms to Fumino, "Mama, Mama!" He called out as he saw his mother come towards him but Akari held him still in her arms.

"Oh no you don't!" Akari said as she put Jun down on the ground. Akari straightened and looked at her mother, "Mom, you're pregnant-six months-in case you forgot." Akari motioned to Fumino's fully- rounded belly.

"Oh I'm fine. Besides I think a little would be fine, right Jun-kun?" Fumino asked as she looked at her son's smiling face.

"Yes Mama!" Jun called out.

"See!" They looked at her with contagiously big smiles and sparkling eyes.

The slam of the door attracted the entire family's attention. "I'm home!" Ojiro Kazuma called out as he loosened his tie and walked into the living room where the rest of his family gathered.

"Papa!" Jun called out as he ran towards his father's outstretched hands.

Kazuma put down his briefcase and immediately Fumino went to clean the table but was held back by Kazuma's hand encircled around her waist. Kazuma set Jun down and hugged his wife from behind, "You're supposed to be resting, not cleaning like a mad devil." he said softly in her ear.

Fumino turned around, "But it's so boring! There's nothing to do except lay down and look up at the ceiling or sleep."

"I believe that's the point sweetheart." He nuzzled her neck and made his way to her lips. "Rest is important for you right now," he said just before taking her lips in a deep, soul searing kiss.

Akari immediately covered her brother's eyes and excused them form the room all together.

* * *

"So mom," Akari began as she sipped at her mother's freshly prepared lemonade, "How'd you fall in love? ...with dad that is?" Akari had always wondered that in a world where divorces' were becoming dominant and love was becoming harder and harder to find, just how had her parent's held onto their love for so long?

"Hmmm..." Fumino thought as she stopped cutting the cucumbers and plopped one of her freshly cut pieces in her mouth.

"Yes Fumino-chan! How did you fall in love with me?" Kazuma asked as he crept towards Fumino with starts in his eyes. He'd slowly abandoned his permanent post at the stove, overlooking the meal being prepared.

"You be quiet!" Fumino said as she whacked her husband with an oven mit and ordered him back to the simmering soup. Kazuma sighed and dejectedly stood by the oven. "Love, huh?"

A small hand pulled at Akari's sleeve, Akari turned to see her brother staring at her with wide eyes, "A-cha, are you in wuve?"

"No!" Akari opened her mouth but it wasn't her voice that responded. She turned around and saw her father pop up and hug her tightly, squeezing the might out of her. "Akari-chan's not in love with anyone, isn't that right my little princess? You wouldn't break my heart, now would you? Because you know if you left with some unknown man, you'd destroy me completely!"

"Why? I was about her age when we got married?" Fumino looked at her husband bemused.

"We were a different story." Kazuma stubbornly held onto his beliefs. "You wouldn't right, Akari?" Kazuma looked at her earnestly.

Akari pondered his thoughts. She knew that it would be dangerous to bring home anyone to her father but she wanted to feel what her parent's felt on a regular basis. She wanted that love, that happiness that everyone else was so familiar with. In her heart she yearned for that feeling of...warmth and love. However she was interrupted by her mother's sudden question.

"Even if she was to bringing someone home, don't you think that hell would erupt and you'd scare the poo boy away?" Fumino asked expecting her husband to disagree.

But he surprised her when he replied, "Absolutely."

Fumino and Akari watched as Kazuma returned to his post whistling a happy post. "If you ever bring home a guy, introduce him to me first, that way I'll have a chance to shimmer the volcanic eruption down a bit. Maybe." Fumino whispered into her daughters ear and privately they laughed behind Kazuma's back.

"So mom, How did you fall in love?" Akari asked again, wanting to hear the reply. "Did you fall in love faster than a kiss?"

* * *

A/N: I'm thinking of continuing Akari's story line but I guess it all depends on what you readers think! Hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it! :)


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